Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Short-n-Sweet: Colts win maiden Nayudu trophy

Atharv Taide and Co stun MP inside three days n win title by eight wickets after conceding first innings lead 

Principal Correspondent

TIME was running out but they had nothing to lose. After conceding first innings lead to Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha Under-23 team had two days to turn their fortunes. The ‘short’ period ignited the idea of ‘short stuff’ in the mind of coach Trevor Gonsalves. The pacers targeted the rib-cage of Madhya Pradesh batsmen and the hosts had no answer to the barrage of short balls.
In the end, Vidarbha managed to finish the game in a very ‘short’ time winning it by eight wickets inside three days.
The maiden Col CK Nayudu title win is sweeter as Vidarbha claimed the title after conceding a 31-run first innings lead. 
A pep talk on second night with coach Gonsalves turned the tide in Vidarbha’s favour.
“We had a long session last night. We were anyway down and out. In the first innings, I saw Madhya Pradesh batsmen struggling a bit with shorter deliveries. We decided to target their rib-cage on the third morning. Our plan worked and they were bundled out for a very meagre score which we managed to knock off in no time,” coach Gonsalves told ‘The Hitavada’ after Vidarbha’s title win at Holkar Stadium in Indore.
On the third morning Vidarbha seamers Nachiket Bhute (27/3) and Aditya Thakare (14/3) bowled fiery spells to share six wickets between them as they crushed Madhya Pradesh’s hopes of lifting the Col CK Nayudu trophy.
Vidarbha decided to use one end with seamers and pressed the two left-arm spinners from the other. Harsh Dubey (11/2) and Mohit Raut (3/2) did not disappoint their coach as they too strangulated Madhya Pradesh’s batsmen with their tweakers as the hosts were all out for 60 runs.
The target of 91 was easily achieved with opener Taide scoring 32 runs and Nayan Chavan hitting an unbeaten 53 runs.
The hosts had a horrible start to their second innings. They lost their opener on the third delivery of the day when Parth Goswami was trapped in front by Bhute.
Thakare then accounted for the other opener Rishabh Choubey who managed only five runs before being caught by captain Taide in the sixth over.
Wickets kept on tumbling as the trophy started slipping towards Vidarbha dressing room.
There was hardly any partnership between MP batsmen and runs dried up.
The clever thinking of using seamers from one end and spinners from the other paid off for Vidarbha as Madhya Pradesh batters failed to adjust themselves.

From 41 for five their second innings folded up at 60 runs giving Vidarbha a target of 92 runs which the visitors managed in 23.1 overs.
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